How long did it
last? How did it end?"

"Fifteen days," said Harry. "It was time it should end, for all the
water we had caught in the storm was gone--we gave the last drop to
Jones, for we thought him dying; one's tongue was like a dry sponge."

"How did it end?" repeated Mary, in an agony.

"Jennings saw a sail. We thought it all a fancy of weakness, but 'twas
true enough, and they saw our signal of distress!"

The vessel proved to be an American whaler, which had just parted with
her cargo to a homeward bound ship, and was going to refit, and take in
provisions and water at one of the Milanesian islands, before returning
for further captures. The master was a man of the shrewd, hard
money-making cast; but, at the price of Mr. Ernescliffe's chronometer,
and of the services of the sailors, he undertook to convey them where
they might fall in with packets bound for Australia.

The distressed Alcestes at first thought themselves in paradise, but
the vessel, built with no view, save to whales, and, with a considerable
reminiscence of the blubber lately parted with, proved no wholesome
abode, when overcrowded, and in the tropics! Mr. Ernescliffe's science,
resolution, and constancy, had saved his men so far; but with the need
for exertion his powers gave way, and he fell a prey to a return of the
fever which had been his introduction to Dr. May.

"There he was," said Harry, "laid up in a little bit of a stifling
cabin, just like an oven, without the possibility of a breath of air!
The skin-flint skipper carried no medicine; the water--shocking stuff it
was--was getting so low, that there was only a pint a day served out to
each, and though all of us Alcestes clubbed every drop we could spare
for him--it was bad work! Owen and I never were more glad in our lives
than when we heard we were to cast anchor at the Loyalty Isles! Such a
place as it was! You little know what it was to see anything green! And
there was this isle fringed down close to the sea with cocoa-nut trees!
And the bay as clear!--you could see every shell, and wonderful fishes
swimming in it! Well, every one was for going ashore, and some of the
natives swam out to us, and brought things in their canoes, but not
many; it is not encouraged by the mission, nor by David--for those
Yankee traders are not the most edifying society--and the crew vowed
they were cannibals, and had eaten a man three years ago, so they all
went ashore armed."

"You stayed wit